First London screening of the film The Great Trek of the Transport Party commemorating the heroic journey of British miners and their families to Real del Monte in the 1820s.

The British Mexican Society and UNAM United Kingdom invite you to join us at the first screening in London of the documentary film The Great Trek of the Transport Party, Mexico (1825-26): A Tale of Tragedy and Triumph, by Dr. Sharron Schwartz.

The film commemorates the epic journey made by the British men of the Transport Party, who, with great sacrifice, brought around 1,500 tons of machinery and equipment from Falmouth, Cornwall to Real del Monte, Mexico. The men struggled with climate and disease as they transported these very heavy loads, including eight steam engines, from Veracruz up nearly 3000 metres into the mountains where the silver mines are located.

The film celebrates the bicentenary of the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the Comarca Minera de Hidalgo, where the first steam engine was set to work in 1826. This laid the foundations for Real del Monte’s unique links with Britain, and especially with Cornwall. Since 2008, Real del Monte has been twinned with Redruth in Cornwall, the only place in Mexico to be twinned with anywhere in the United Kingdom.

This showing of the film will be presented by Dr Sharron Schwartz, a specialist in Cornish migration and an historian and award-winning author who was born and bred in Redruth, Cornwall. She is a history graduate of London University, a bard of Gorsedh Kernow and did her PhD on Cornish mining migration to Latin America at Exeter University. Sharron will be with us to give a short introductory talk and will take questions after the screening. Her new book elaborates on the themes covered in the film. (Copies will be for sale at the event.)

We much look forward to seeing you on Wednesday 10th June at 5.00pm at the Waterloo Franklin-Wilkins Building room 2.81, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NQ.